Chapter List

Overview

The telecommunications infrastructure that exists in a handful of high-income countries includes 71% of the world s phone lines and supports only 15% of the world s population. The least and lesser-developed countries of the world, with more than 77% of world population, have only 5% of the world s phone lines. More than half of the world s nearly six billion people have never even used a phone.

Telecommunications equipment giant Lucent Technologies Inc. predicts the global market for communications systems and services will grow 14.5% annually to $650 billion by 2001.

It s impossible to predict what the telecom market will look like in three to five years. The technological and regulatory changes underway are unprecedented. One thing you can count on is that the technology will continuously improve and that technology and services will spring up, and quickly.

Bringing phone service into a business is basically twofold. There s the provisioning, the outside part (how you connect to everyone else in the world you want to communicate with) and there s the equipment you use to make the connections.

There are exceptions to this, like Centrex service (for more see that chapter), but basically, you need a way to communicate inside your enterprise and from your enterprise to the outside world, equipment-wise, and a way...